Gillingham (H) - Sat 2nd March

[tangerinedream]

We return to action this weekend with the visit of Gillingham who sit one place out of the play-off places on goal difference and who'll be looking to build on a win and a draw against Wrexham and Stockport County in their last two run outs. The Kent side have now just lost twice in their last 12 outings (winning and drawing five) but what's particularly notable for a team challenging for promotion is their goal scoring record - or should I say lack off - which has seen then net just 32 times in 34 games which makes them comfortably the worst goal scoring side in the division. This is supported by their current leading scorers, namely Connor Mahoney and Macauley Bonne (boo!) having notched just five goals each. On the other hand there are only two sides who have conceded less that being the current top two in the table. Our last meeting with them at their Priestfield Stadium back in mid November saw them triumph by 3-1 in what for our part was a poor and lack lustre performance. The return from injury of a number of key players which coincided with KR's appointment has unfortunately reverted to type with at least four key players all looking doubtful for the weekend. After two winless outings here's hoping we can get back to winning ways!

[jayb99]

Dreading this one after Tuesday night.

[chipbarm]

We're that perverse we are quite capable of winning on Saturday despite on paper this being the harder game this week. So far at home under KR we've gone DWDWD so you know what comes next! I'm going to go crazy and say we'll win 1-0. Yes an actual clean sheet which would be only our 2nd at home this season.

[tangerinedream]

Dreadful first half from both sides which got worse for us with their opener which had a hint of off-side to it but without a side view or comments from anyone in line with the scorer we'll never know. A bright opening to the second half did little to break a resolute Gillingham defence and apart from a couple of half decent efforts we never looked like scoring in a month of Sunday's. Approach work was reasonable but the end product was one dimensional. Either find the head of a poorly positioned and well marked Smith or pass the ball from left to right with no one positionally astute enough to put a decent effort on target. Gillingham coped better with the conditions, made less errors and I'm not really certain why KR again wants to confront the referee with respect to their second goal. It was poor decision making by Vassell and they capitalised accordingly. As per usual we ramped up the pressure with precious little time left but were nowhere near inventive enough to open them up. No more talk of fortress Moor Lane. Please!

[tangerinedream]

KR post match .........

[jayb99]

Mar 2, 2024 18:46:48 GMT tangerinedream said:

KR post match .........

Not sure there was anything left he could blame? Ref, conditions, injuries, fixture congestion.. said we missed big chances - i dont recall a single chance in the first half, had a few in the final 10mins i suppose. Defensively we were shocking again, we're so fragile in defence! Is that 1 point from a possible 9 in last 3 games? New manager syndrome is definitely over for us now and it's back to more of the same.

[chipbarm]

Today felt like we'd regressed to the worst days of the Wood era at times. Defensively fragile, a poor pass across the defence that led to their 2nd and just an air of apathy across the whole team. Midfield was non existent with Humbles miles off the pace before he came off and Watson just drifting through the game. We had no width 1st half but when we changed it McLennan did very little and Morton even less. A couple of half chances 2nd half but we wouldn't have scored if we were still playing now. We've a run of tough games coming up so I just hope we have enough of a gap to the relegation places already as I can see us struggling a bit from now to the end of the season.

[Chris P. Bacon]

Mar 2, 2024 20:38:17 GMT chipbarm said:

Today felt like we'd regressed to the worst days of the Wood era at times. Defensively fragile, a poor pass across the defence that led to their 2nd and just an air of apathy across the whole team. Midfield was non existent with Humbles miles off the pace before he came off and Watson just drifting through the game. We had no width 1st half but when we changed it McLennan did very little and Morton even less. A couple of half chances 2nd half but we wouldn't have scored if we were still playing now. We've a run of tough games coming up so I just hope we have enough of a gap to the relegation places already as I can see us struggling a bit from now to the end of the season.

4 shots on target against a team that weren’t much better than ourselves. We drifted back to the bad old days and that meant Cairns pretending to want to pass it out quickly but of course…..he never did. He just lumped it up every time to Smith, who was pushed, pulled and generally marked out of the game. Yet they still tried.

Ingram, Vassell, Humbles and Watson were shocking and our captain wasn’t much better. The conditions aren’t to blame, because Gillingham played in the same weather. I said it on Facebook, but their keeper had the cleanest kit on the pitch.

I’m not sure where the sponsors get John as the MoM, unless his mum sponsored the game. Tilt was probably the best of a very bad bunch.

The refereeing seems to get worse with each passing game, so the bar is clearly set low in this league.

KR has been left with a team of mainly duds, so he’s done well to get a few wins out of them. I still think he’s the man to progress us, when he actually gets his own players in.

[je85]

As echoed by one or two previous today felt like December all over again - and not just because of the white matter falling from the sky. Playing in straight lines, no variety in our play, struggling to maintain control and not getting shots away with any authority - Gillingham’s 3-5-2 nullified our entire shape and the lack of options off the bench really showed again today.

Setting Watson, Watt, Humbles in a flat three to match up with Williams, Coleman and Dieng made sense, but what we failed to do was get to grips with Neasden and Hawkins up top and the runs from Materson and Ogie in the first half. Chester’s and Declan John were baited first half by sticking high to the wing backs, this made it easy for Materson and Ogie to bomb on with ease. Ogie was my MoTM his direct running at Ingram tied him in knots, and Ethan was getting blasted by KR at every opportunity 1st half because of it. I think the ring rust plus Vassell’s struggle with Neasden twisted his melon, on the one or two opportunities he had to get the ball up to Chester’s, KR was screaming at him to get up the pitch quicker. Whether the original plan was for him to be carrying the ball more I am not sure, but between the flow of the game and what KR was looking for neither would’ve worked today because nothing was on in front of Ingram. Stepping up he was leaving Tilt and Vassell like sitting ducks in transition so he was dammed if he did dammed if he didn’t.

Neither McAleny or Smith seemed able to drop in and support the midfield three to get +1, so getting the ball out wide to Chester’s or John was rarely on aside from it being ballooned up from Cairns. The goal was a complete mood killer for us today. It looked off side from my position on the left of the west stand - but the Lino was never seeing it because he was already running back up the line. I wasn’t shocked the goal came effectively from a set piece, our marking was beyond lax on every corner and free kick. Humbles man - Neasden was dropping him at every opportunity. How he was able to ditch humbles at the back post run through the 6yard box to be the short option for two early corners was beyond me, it actually made me laugh it was soo bad on our part.

I think KR has to take a lot of responsibility for today. I completely appreciate how compromised we are by the injuries and suspensions but we were playing checkers today, whilst the opponent was playing chess. The second goal to me feels irrelevant because the game was gone, Theo has to do better regardless of the contact especially with Cairns as a better option for the pass. But fundamentally I didn’t see us scoring today and Smith’s header over or Watt’s effort from 18yards seemed to sum us up in attack today.

Lastly on KR, I think his comments on officials a few weeks back can definitively be seen as backfiring. I agree with KR we have a physical element to our make up and that draws a lot of holding and grappling of our players. Today between the ref and the Lino on the north stand touchline there was an overcompensating towards the away side that was excessive. The Lino was very audible throughout, he was screaming 16! 16! (Tilt) on every set piece first half. Second half 18! watch red 18! which was Connor Mac. McAleny had Coleman’s arms wrapped around his midsection on 2 or 3 occasions, to the point Connor was dragged to the ground on the back of the ref speaking to both players - but no penalty. I don’t see a change forthcoming and all I think KR’s comments have done is promote less decisions going our way. In our current predicament where we probably need ten points to feel safe maybe wasn’t advisable

[alanb]

Do we believe that we would still have lost if we'd have had Junior and Kelly playing?

[je85]

Mar 3, 2024 22:30:27 GMT alanb said:

Do we believe that we would still have lost if we'd have had Junior and Kelly playing?

My immediate thought would be - No I doubt they would’ve improved things against the way Gillingham set up. But secondly who would you switch out?

Gillingham are delivering a very well drilled version of the 3-5-2, like Brentford can do against a 4-3-3 in the prem. Personally think that was the best prepared side to come to ML since Wellen’s Orient last season. KR clearly saw something in the 3-3-4 shape that Newport did against them hence the inclusion of Ethan Ingram @ RB becoming a defacto 3rd CB. The issue we have is neither McAleney or Smith are effective at becoming part of the midfield to get 4vs3, Chester’s and John were stuck to the wing backs who just stayed out wide and relatively deep. The two pockets behind Chester’s and John killed us Saturday. It was too easy for Materson and Ogie to get up and create a 4vs3(tilt, Vassell, Ingram) or On a few occasions 4vs2(tilt, Vassell).

If fully fit that may have been a game to start Hendry for Smith (to bring on against a tiring defence), or even Lund for McAleny to try and out number their midfield so the wide players could attack from outside to in. This would’ve allowed Watt to drop between Tilt and Vassell more frequently against the counter to give us an extra body against the two strikers - but ultimately I didn’t get the feeling we would score Saturday from where I was stood. Hard not to be impressed with how well drilled Clemence has that system working because I always felt that anything we did they have seen it before, even second half when we made a fist of it. That was the 9th or 10th game with the same Keeper, defence and midfield three in a row, that they put out and they looked considerably fresher than us in the first half.

[tangerinedream]

Mar 3, 2024 22:30:27 GMT alanb said:

Do we believe that we would still have lost if we'd have had Junior and Kelly playing?

Their inclusion would certainly have given us a greater presence upfront and more for Gillingham's defence to contend with although would the conditions have been conducive to Kelly N'Mai's style of play? If one or both still out of contention against Stockport County a week on Thursday at Moor Lane then I'll be approaching that game with far less confidence than I would have done otherwise. In my place in the West Stand I was the only one of us to predict a home loss (2-1) as I felt that their respective absences would significantly impact on our attacking options.